In his quest to secure additional funding for the nation’s cash-
strapped transit systems, Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) yesterday
looked to frame the need first and foremost as a matter of safety.
The Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs subcommittee chairman pointed
to this summer’s fatal accident on the Washington, D.C., Metrorail
system as proof of his point. “On that day just after 5 p.m. a
Washington Metro train plowed into another train that had stopped on
the same track,” he said. “Nine people, including the train operator,
were killed and 80 were injured.”
Menendez, who chairs the Housing, Transportation and Community
Development Subcommittee, has repeatedly pushed for more funding for
transit, often highlighting the ability of low-carbon transportation
systems — like bus-rapid transit and light rail — to curb greenhouse
gas emissions and cut down on fuel consumption.
He is currently pushing for any climate and energy bill the Senate
takes up to include substantially more transportation funding than the
House version, which would allow up to 1 percent of the allocations to
be used by states to fund public transit and other alternative
transportation projects (E&E Daily, July 8).
But yesterday, Menendez’s focus was squarely on safety.
“One of the most important things we, the federal government, can do
to honor the memories of those who died in this tragedy is to provide
agencies the resources needed to keep this from happening,” Menendez
said, calling for an increase in funding for FTA’s rail modernization
grant program and for the consideration of emergency funding to help
address the backlog of disrepair.
Tying the need for transportation funding to the issue of safety is
nothing new. Transportation Department officials often cite safety as
their No. 1 priority and lawmakers, too, routinely highlight safety
concerns.
Another prominent example is the 2007 collapse of a Minnesota bridge
that killed 13 people. The bridge, built in 1967, had been regarded as
structurally deficient since 1990 and had undergone yearly inspections
by the state transportation officials beginning in 1993.
House Transportation and Infrastructure Chairman James Oberstar and
Sen. Amy Klobuchar, both Minnesota Democrats, still routinely cite the
accident when discussing the needs of the nation’s roads and bridges.
Menendez, likewise, stressed safety while pointing to a recent study
from the Federal Transit Administration that estimated it would cost
$50 billion alone to bring the nation’s seven largest rail transit
agencies into good repair.
The report “gave us the facts and figures, but I think we can all
agree that the real wakeup call about the condition of the nation’s
transit system equipment was the tragic events of June 22, 2009,” he
said, referring to the day of the Metrorail accident.
According to the FTA study, roughly a third of the trains, equipment
and facilities for the seven systems are in either marginal or poor
condition, implying that the assets have either exceeded their
expected useful life or will do so soon. The seven systems — in
Chicago, Boston, New York, New Jersey, San Francisco, Philadelphia and
Washington — carry a total 3 billion passenger trips a year, or
roughly 80 percent of the nation’s rail transit passenger load.
While a number of recent transit accidents have made national
headlines, FTA chief Peter Rogoff stressed that transit is still one
of the safest modes of transportation in the Unites States and
substantially safer than traveling by highways. Still, he said FTA
will initiate an expanded study about the state of the nation’s
transit systems beyond the largest seven.
- Josh Voorhees, E&E reporter